Town councillor Alex Reed has recently utilized a seldom, if ever, used standing council agenda item to obtain feedback from the administration on three questions and now it's possible the item will be dropped from the agenda in a procedural bylaw revision.

The procedural bylaw will be reviewed in the near future, possibly as late as this summer, says Mayor Jeff Genung. He says he simply used it as an example of what could be finetuned.

"Whether council votes to change it or not, I was just trying to highlight that it could be something we look at," says Mayor Genung. "I'm not advocating for or against it, I just really don't know what the purpose of it is other than to ask our admin something, but we always have that option."

Councillor Reed used the agenda item to ask questions in regards to hiring practices, quarterly checks and balances on spending and what recourse the town is taking on what he views as the offloading of EMS costs to the town by the province.

Reed isn't keen on eliminating the agenda item and believes it has its place in the interest of public transparency.

"Because I've caused so many waves with my questions under administrative inquiry, apparently there is a proposal that it be eliminated as an agenda item. I want to hear the discussion first, but I'm not really partial to that. I think there's a place in a democracy for public discussion and forums to ask questions and I don't think closing that all down is the right way to do it."

Genung believes many of the questions being asked and notices of motion coming forward are a result of the new council having few chances to meet informally to bounced around ideas. He's hoping to alleviate this during their first strategic planning session on Feb. 9 and by instituting informal get-togethers. He says it's a chance to discuss what council wants to accomplish, where they would like to go as a community and to set goals and priorities for administration. 

"There are other ways to accomplish the same thing and in a lot easier manner than by putting it on the agenda, so to speak," says Genung.

In the meantime, available councillors visited several of the town's operations last week, as well as the Spray Lake Sawmills operation here in town.

"It is interesting and I really like the chance to see and meet and talk to our staff. They're the glue that holds everything together, the boots on the ground, the people making it happen. I think it's important for them to see and meet council and for us to see and meet them and show an interest in what they do."

The town did close shop for two hours Monday morning for a staff meeting. No further information on the discussions was provided.